How to Move and Copy a Folder

Users can move folders by left-clicking on the folder and then dragging and dropping onto another target folder. Also, users can right-click on a folder, selecting "Cut" from the context menu. Then, users can right-click on the target folder, and select "Paste" from the context menu.

To copy a folder, users can hold down the Ctrl key, left click on the folder, and then drag and drop the folder onto the target folder. Users can also right-click on the folder, selecting "Copy" from the context menu. Then users can right-click on the target folder and select "Paste" from the context menu.

Folders can be moved or copied from one branch of the tree to another as long as the user has Owner rights at the target folder. When restructuring the Document Library with a copy or a move there are a list of actions that effect the way naming conventions, permissions, indexes, and other attributes of the folder react depending on if the folder was:

moved versus copied.

placed at the top level or in a subfolder

originally had inheritance enabled or not

The following table describes what effects moving and copying folders have on various attributes of the folder, including permissions, folder approval workflow routes, naming conventions, index fields, and the properties of the documents within the moved/copied folder.

Folder Move and Copy Rules:

Type

Attribute

Explanation

Move

Permissions

Must be an Owner of the moved folder and owner of the destination folder.

To move a folder to the top level, must be a member of VaultAdmin/VaultAccess role.

When a folder is moved to be a top level folder, permissions are equal to when it was a subfolder.

When moved to a subfolder, folder and document security is dropped and copied from the target folder.

Move

Approval Route

If an approval route exists, retain that approval route.

If an approval route does not exist and the parent has an approval route, it will be copied to the copied folder.

Move

Naming Conventions

If the moved folder is not inheriting a naming convention it retains the naming convention it was using.

If the moved folder was inheriting naming convention then it will inherit target folders naming convention.

If the moved folder was inheriting a naming convention and is moved to the top level, the naming convention will be disabled.

Move

Index Fields

Will retain its index fields.

Move

Documents

All document will be moved with the moved folder.

All Document ID's will remain the same.

If the moved folder is not inheriting naming conventions, original naming convention used for new and existing documents.

If the moved folder inherits naming conventions, all new documents will use the new naming convention.

Copy

Permissions

Must be an Owner of the source folder and owner of the destination folder.

Copy of a folder to top level requires user to be a member of vaultadmin role.

Copy of a folder to top level, it will keep the security it originally used.

Copy to a subfolder, it will copy security from the target folder.

Permissions on documents copied with folder will be set according to the folder permissions.

Copy

Approval Route

If the copied folder has an existing approval route, then it is retained.

If the copied folder does not have an approval route and the parent does, it is copied from the parent.

Copy

Naming Conventions

If the copied folder was inheriting naming conventions from the parent folder, then it will inherit from the new parent folder.

If the copied folder was not inheriting naming conventions, then the naming set to not use naming conventions.

Copy

Index Fields

Will retain its index fields.

Copy

Documents

Documents are copied and checked into the new folder as if they were new documents to the library.

If the folder has its own naming convention, documents will have a (x) added to the end. The letter x represents a number of sequences to make the id unique.*

*Document IDs must be unique within the Document Library. When moving folders, the documents will always retain their original Document ID. When copying folders, the documents will be copied with the folder and will be assigned a new Document ID. The assignment of the new Document ID depends upon if the copied folder inherits the naming convention or not. If the naming convention is inherited an incremental Document ID will be assigned similar to documents in the parent folder. If the naming convention is not inherited the document will retain its original document id, but will have a (1) or (x) applied to the end of the document id to make it unique within the Document Library.